Secuenciación de contenidos Primer trimestr

This section used survey data from 901 mothers who had babies in July and August 2011 to investigate the uptake, and experiences of the PPL scheme since the beginning of the mandatory employer role from 1 July 2011.

4.8.1 Uptake of PLP

In the first year of operation the PPL scheme there were around 130,000 PPL claimants. However, data from the MoPE survey indicate that not all mothers who were eligible for PLP applied for or accessed the scheme:

• It is estimated that around 17 per cent of PLP eligible mothers took BB rather than PLP

• BB mothers differed from PPL mothers on several social,demographic and work characteristics, including:

o A higher proportion of BB mothers already had children in the household

o A higher proportion of BB mothers were single

o On average BB mothers worked fewer hours and earned less income than PPL mothers

o A higher proportion of BB mothers worked on casual contracts or were self-employed

o On average BB mothers tended to work for smaller employers o BB mothers were more likely to resign from employment at birth

4.8.2 Awareness and Knowledge of the scheme

Results from the MoPE survey indicate that the communication campaign was extremely successful, only 4 mothers who took BB had never heard of the PPL scheme prior to the birth of their baby, the rest of the mothers were aware of the PPL scheme. The results of MoPE show that:

• The majority of mothers first heard about the scheme via targeted Government advertising (42 per cent), and other non-advertising media such as newspaper, television and radio stories (26 per cent)

• Nearly 60 per cent of mothers used the Government website as the main source to obtain detailed information about the scheme, with government offices, such as Centrelink, the main alternative source.

4.8.3 Deciding between PLP and BB

Overall the PPL scheme was extremely popular with mothers, but as shown in Section 4.3, not all PLP eligible mothers took PLP, some decided to take BB.

The results of MoPE show that in deciding between taking PLP and BB:

• A higher proportion of BB mothers considered applying for PLP (75 per cent), than PPL mothers who considered applying for BB (37 per cent)

• For BB mothers the main reason for not applying for or deciding to take PLP was because they believed they were better off financially with BB, other

86 secondary reasons were that they didn’t want to take the full 18 weeks of leave or thought they may not be eligible for PLP.

• For PPL mothers the main reason they chose PLP over BB was because they were financially better off with PLP, with secondary reasons including that they wanted a longer amount of time off with their baby and that they liked the regular payments provided by PLP. This suggests that mothers were confused about the Baby Bonus, as it has been paid in fortnightly instalments since 1 January 2009.

• Both the qualitative and quantitative data suggest that employers played a very minor role in mothers’ decision processes about which payment to take, and when employers were involved they were largely supportive, with only 4 per cent of mothers who spoke to their employers indicating that they were not supportive.

4.8.4 Mothers’ Experiences applying for and receiving PLP payments

Overall, mothers’ experiences of PLP were very positive. The results of MoPE indicate that:

• Most mothers applied for PLP before their baby was born (83 per cent) • Most mothers applied online (85 per cent),

• Mothers were, however, very divided in their opinions about how easy the application process was. Those who applied online found the claim process the easiest with 59 per cent agreeing that it was easy, and 38 per cent disagreeing that the claim process was easy. Mothers who lodged a paper claim on average found the claim process more difficult. But this may be because mothers who had trouble were more likely to go into an office to complete the claim form.

o These results were supported by the qualitative interviews. While the majority of mothers experienced few or no problems, a large minority did find the claim process to be difficult. The main issues were to do with the length of the form, the information required to successfully complete the form and having to provide proof of birth. In some cases mothers reported being required to fill out duplicate information after birth, rather than just the supplementary information regarding their proof of birth.

o CALD and single mothers experienced unique problems. The main problems that CALD mothers experienced were due to barriers with language and receiving help and advice with their applications. Single mothers experienced trouble with the logistics of completing additional paper work and lodging forms after birth and had to rely on parents or friends to help them.

• The vast majority of mothers (83 per cent) took the full 18 weeks of PLP, and 97 per cent of mothers received the full payments themselves (only 3 per cent of mothers transferred some or all payments to another primary carer)

• Overall, most mothers (73 per cent) received their payments through their employer

o This varied considerably by contract type, where 15 per cent of mothers on permanent or ongoing contracts, 52 per cent of mothers on a fixed term contract, 73 per cent of mothers on casual contracts and 97 per cent of self-employed mothers received the payments through Centrelink. This should be 100 per cent, however, it is likely that there was one self-employed mother who processed her claim as both employer and claimant and therefore had employee paid PLP.

87 • Some 46 per cent of mothers reported at least one problem with their PLP

payments

o The problems reported by mothers included missed and skipped payments, late payments and receiving incorrect amounts.

o Mothers receiving payments through their employer were more likely to report problems with their payments (54 per cent did) than those receiving their payments through Centrelink (26 per cent).

o The qualitative interviews indicate that while the majority of mothers were extremely satisfied with the scheme, some mothers experienced high levels of hardship as a result of problems with payments.

4.8.5 KIT Provisions

Less than half of the mothers were aware of or had used the KIT days that were legislated as part of the PPL scheme. The results of MoPE suggest that:

• The majority (58 per cent) of mothers were not aware of the KIT provisions • Of mothers who were aware of the KIT provisions, only 28 per cent had used

them

• While the majority of mothers were not using the KIT provisions to participate in paid work activities while receiving payments, the qualitative interviews indicated that many mothers had kept in touch with their work place through less formal channels, such as visiting with their babies, or receiving regular email updates about changes in the business.

4.8.6 Paid and unpaid leave around the birth

The PPL Scheme was introduced to provide greater coverage and access to allow working mothers to take time off work with pay. Prior to the scheme less than half of working mothers had access to any forms of paid leave at the birth of their baby. MoPE found that in relation to forms of leave around the birth:

• There were large differences in leave taking between BB and PPL mothers o For all types of paid leave (employer maternity leave, holiday, long

service and sick leave) and unpaid leave (statutory unpaid parental leave), BB mothers reported having less access. Overall, some 27 per cent of BB mothers were unable to access any type of paid or unpaid leave, compared to only 9 per cent of PPL mothers

o A greater proportion of PPL mothers had access to employer paid leave than BB mothers

o With regards to statutory unpaid parental leave, around 43 per cent of BB mothers believed they did not have access to unpaid leave, compared to only 24 per cent of PPL mothers.

The qualitative interviews show that mothers who did not have entitlements to unpaid parental leave generally had no problems negotiating time off with their employer in order to take PLP. A number of employers offered mothers longer if they wanted. The sampling data received from Centrelink indicated that there were 11 fathers who had children born or adopted in July and August 2011 who had been approved to receive or who had received some or all of the PLP for the baby. The MoPE study interviewed 7 of these fathers about their experiences. While many experiences were similar to those for mothers, there were also some unique aspects to the fathers’ experiences:

• The fathers tended to be highly educated, employed full time on permanent contracts

88 • The majority decided to take the leave following an assessment of what was best for the family as a whole and for their partner’s needs (for example, one father had a partner with a disability).

• Some fathers experienced cultural prejudices from employers and the community.

o Some employers were not flexible about other entitlements such as holiday leave

o Some employers did not take the steps necessary to ensure the payments could be made through them rather than Centrelink

o Some fathers found that their decision received mixed reactions from their family, friends and the community more broadly. These were mostly tied to perceptions about culturally appropriate roles of mothers and fathers during the first few months of a baby’s life.

• All but one father experienced major problems with the application process: o For all fathers, the mother had to play a critical role in the application

process as she had to transfer the entitlement. The whole process was set up around mothers as the primary claimant and both parents are required to claim in their own right.

o Fathers’ also noted that there appeared to be a lack of knowledge among Centrelink staff about what to do when fathers were applying.

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5 EMPLOYER’S IMPLEMENTATION AND PROCESS

EVALUATION

Mara A. Yerkes, Marian Baird, Alexandra Heron, Laetitia Coles and Judy Rose

Employers play a key role in the PPL scheme. This chapter focuses on employers’ experiences in meeting their responsibilities under the Paid Parental Leave scheme. It begins by examining the existing leave provisions amongst the Employer Implementation Phase Evaluation (EIPE) sample of employers, and whether they made any changes to their HR policies and practices following the introduction of the PPL scheme. It then analyses how employers managed PLP in their organisation, including their experiences in sourcing information about PPL, registering for the scheme, and administering it. The chapter considers how employers managed PLP with their employees, including how information was provided to employees, what discussions took place, and how work was organized when employees took PLP. Finally, the chapter considers employers experiences with the KIT provisions of the PPL scheme.

The findings in this chapter are based on the Employers Implementation Phase Evaluation (EIPE) study, involving a survey of a stratified random sample of 501 employers who had provided PLP to at least one employee giving birth in July or August 2011 and applying for PPL. It also involves in-depth interviews with a purposive sample of 41 employers. Surveys and interviews were conducted between October and November 2011.

In document PROGRAMACIÓN DEL DEPARTAMENTO DE TECNOLOGÍA (página 79-88)